Questions
by justanoutlaw
Summary: Neal asks his big sister a lot of questions. Emma somehow always finds an answer.


Neal was an articulate child. He was small for his age, with big innocent blue eyes like his dad and his mother's round face. No one expected the questions that came out of him.

Perhaps not even Emma, who ended up getting them most times.

She takes him out of town once a month so their parents can have a day fully to themselves. In the summer, they go to a bigger beach. In the fall and winter, she takes him shopping for new toys and to see a movie. Springtime is when they have a picnic lunch in a park about a half hour outside of Storybrooke and then browse the bookstore to Neal's content. She lets him pour over books that are probably too old for him, especially at 5 years old, but she doesn't believe in age restrictions. He sits in one of the big comfy armchairs and reads aloud to her all the words he knows.

One of the workers walks by and pauses to listen as he flips through a Captain Underpants book. "Your son is adorable," she says to Emma, walking away before the latter can correct her.

Neal looks up at Emma. "I'm not your son."

Emma lets out a small laugh. "I know bud, but she thought I was your mom. We all know I'm just your cool big sister, though."

Neal nodded, seeming content with the answer for a minute before he spoke again. "Why do people think that?"

"Hm?"

"That you're my mommy?"

Emma shrugged. "I guess it's because I'm so much older than you, I do look the same age as our mom."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you so much bigger than me?"

Emma is quiet, unsure of how to explain herself. She knows her parents should be the one to discuss the curse and everything that happened within it, but it's her story too.

"Well, you know our town has lots of magic in it. Sometimes it means that people have mommies and daddies that aren't much older than them."

"But Mommy and Daddy are lots older than me."

Emma searches her mind for an answer, trying to figure out how to best explain it. "Well, for awhile, they were stuck in time. Like…Captain America." Neal's eyes light up at the mention of his favorite superhero. "But I wasn't, I grew up normally. But when Mom and Dad were done being frozen in time, they had you." She pauses, trying to add that all up in her head. "Does that make sense?"

Neal nods. "Can we get ice cream, Emmy?"

A relieve smile falls across her face. "Sure, bud."

* * *

"Why do we have different last names?"

Neal's second big question comes about when he's sitting at her desk in the sheriff's station. He's 6 years old. Snow is working and David had an emergency on the farm, so she agreed to take him. She set her baby brother up at her desk with coloring sheets, books and as a last resort, her iPad. She's in the middle of catching up on her paperwork, so she doesn't entirely hear him.

"What's that buddy?"

"My last name is Charming, but your last name is Swan." He points to her ID in her opened wallet. "But we're brother and sister. Aren't siblings supposed to have the same last name?"

"Sometimes they don't, for a lot of different reasons."

"Well why is your last name Swan?"

Emma moves from David's old desk to be closer to him. This is a complicated question. "Well, I didn't grow up with Mom and Dad. You know that."

After the run-in at the bookstore, the three older members of the family agreed it was best to explain the curse to Neal in the most child appropriate way possible. He hadn't had many questions at the time, outside would it happen again or would he ever be the same age as them. Those were fairly easy to answer. While they couldn't guarantee that another villain wouldn't cast a curse, it had been years since one even attempted. They were safe as a family unit and nothing could change that.

"But you found Mommy and Daddy, because Henry took you to see them."

Emma nodded. "That's right. But growing up, I didn't know about them. They forgot who I was and they didn't have a chance to tell me. So, when I was a little older than you, I decided to create my own last name."

"You don't want to be a Charming?"

"I'll always be a Charming," Emma assures him. "We don't have to have the same last name to be related. Picking my name was something very important to me. I didn't even change it when I got married for that reason. It doesn't change that I love Mom, Dad and you very, very much."

"Oh." Neal looks down at his superhero coloring book, before glancing back up at her. "I think I like having the last name Charming."

Emma ruffles his hair. She tries not to think about what could've been too often. Maybe everything happened exactly how it was supposed to. Even so, she'll always wonder how different her life would be if she had been raised by her parents. She'd only be a few years older than Neal. Yet, she wouldn't have had Henry, at least not in the same way. The friendships they all created, wouldn't be the same. Hell, she wouldn't change the bond she had with her own parents for the world.

Yes, Emma thinks about how nice it would've been to have her parents growing up but it wasn't what happened. She is glad, however, that her little brother will never face those challenges.

"Well," she says. "I'm glad you got a chance to have it."


End file.
